3 HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN RECIPES

Over the weekend of Nicks 30th Birthday (which also coincided with Halloween) we made 3 pumpkin recipes, my mums pumpkin & kumara soup (kumara is sweet potato to non kiwis),  a pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie ice cream!

I love pumpkin soup, my mum always made it with sweet potato or tomatoes to add sweetness to the flavour. With the the addition of kumara theres also an extra 'secret' ingredient to make it even better, read on for the secret!
I can make this recipe off the top of my head and its pretty easy to do so below are roughly the amounts you should use, but generally taste as you go for desired flavour.

PUMPKIN & KUMARA SOUP

Ingredients

1 Butternut pumpkin
4 small or 2 large kumara/sweet potato
1 large brown onion
200ml vege stock
cumin
chilli
salt
pepper
1-2 tbsp peanut butter
cream to garnish

I was suggested to add a squeeze of lemon juice to help bring out the flavour, I did.

1. Usually I roast the veggies first, pouring a generous amount of olive oil over top of them and popping them in the oven at 180c for up to an hour. They should be soft with a golden crust starting to caramelise. After this put them in to a pot with water to cover them and boil a little until they are soft enough to mash or pulverise.

Alternatively and this is totally fine as well,  (I do it a lot and I had to due to lack of oven space for Nicks birthday dinner) you can bring the veges to the boil in water enough to cover them, add in the vege stock and season well.

2. Once the veges are soft and ready to mash I pour out about half the water so its not too liquidy. Keep the broth you've created to one side though as you may want to add more back in later.
Use a hand blender or even a masher to pulverise the veges in to a smooth mixture.

3. Add some more salt and pepper to season, cumin and chilli if you like and leave to simmer until it reduces down in to a thicker soup.  Now the secret to this soup is peanut butter! I like 2 tbsps for this amount and use crunchy peanut butter. Mix it in to the hot soup until it dissolves, it creates a lovely nutty flavour which goes perfectly with the pumpkin.

At any time you can add the broth back in a little at a time to create your desired thickness.
I waited until I'd reduced the initial soup down for about 30 minutes until I got it nice and thick then added a bit more back in to boost the quantity.

This recipe fed 11 of us as a starter -  I added a dash of cream on top. Eat this with some fresh crusty bread.

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Pumpkin is so versatile not just roasted or in soups, I love chocolate and pumpkin muffins. Proof it works in sweet treats as well as savoury snacks.   I only recently tried pumpkin pie and instantly I was excited by this dessert, where has it been all my life!

The great thing about the pie is its less rich than most desserts, it has a savouryness to it, I guess it allows you to eat a bit more, which sounds great to me! I found the recipe on joy of baking and tweaked for my own taste.

PUMPKIN PIE WITH MAPLE CREAM

Ingredients


Pastry
175 grams plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon caster sugar
113 grams unsalted chilled butter
30 - 60 ml ice water


Pecan and Gingersnap Layer (optional but very complimentary to the pumpkin)

25 grams pecans, toasted and ground/chopped

25 grams crushed ginger nut biscuits

Pumpkin Filling:

3 large eggs

425 grams pumpkin puree (I used about half a normal pumpkin, the green ones)

120 ml double cream

110 grams light brown sugar (I only had caster sugar, it worked fine!)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

Maple Whipped Cream:

240 ml double cream

1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup  (I added more, just taste as you go until you're happy)

Turn the oven on to 180c to start as you will be roasting pecans first  - you will need to turn it up to 190c to cook the final pie.

1. To make the pastry you could use a food processor but we didn't have one so this was done by hand (thanks Matt!) In a large bowl rub the butter in to the dry ingredients -  the butter should be chopped in to cubes to make this easier. Add a little cold water to the mixture so the dough doesn't sweat. Once it forms crumbs create a small ball out of the dough, cover with cling film and pop in to the fridge for half an hour.
2. At this point you should chop up the pumpkin in to cubes and boil until soft enough to make a puree. Use a food processor or hand blender to make this really smooth.

3. Toast the pecans in a 180c for 8 minutes then allow them to cool and chop or crush with the ginger nut biscuits, set aside.

4. Start with a clean lightly floured surface and roll the cooled pastry out thinly to fit the size of the pie dish. Use extra flour if the dough starts to become sticky. Rub a generous amount of butter on the pie dish so that your crust won't stick when it cooks, then carefully lift the pastry up and and place in to the dish. You can have some fun being decorative with the sides of the pie.

5. Sprinkle the crushed pecans and ginger but biscuits over the pastry base gently pushing them into the bottom of the base, pop the dish back in to the fridge while you make the pie filling.

6. To make the pie filling whisk the eggs, add the dry ingredients, cream and pumpkin puree mix it together. Now taste it, is it sweet enough? Do you fancy more cinnamon, ginger etc. Use your gut!

7. Pour the pumpkin filling in to the pie dish covering the pecans and ginger nut pieces then pop the dish in the oven for 45-55 minutes at 190c. I found 45 minutes was plenty for me, I was using a fan force oven. (As an unfamiliar oven it had a hot spot -  see the picture below. Didn't effect the taste though)

8. To make the maple cream its simple, mix maple syrup with cream until it tastes good!

**

PUMPKIN AND GINGER ICE CREAM  (sorry no photos, too tasty)

Finally, Nick scored an ice cream machine as a  birthday gift!  We thought we'd make pumpkin icecream with some the the left over pumpkin. Then we thought we'd be really creative and actually use the left over pumpkin pie filling in the icecream to create a pumpkin and ginger flavour pack with texture and crunch. (Alternatively just boil some pumpkin and puree it like we did with the soup recipe above).

Its fairly simple to make ice cream its essentially a custard with what ever flavour you wish to add, but you need an ice cream maker to easily mix the ice cream and stop it crystallising as it freezes. We diverted from the recipe in the book because of ingredients we had, this is how we made it below and it had a perfect smooth ice cream texture and tasted delicious.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1 cup half and half (milk and cream)
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree/left over pie filling
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cup double cream
1tsp vanilla extract
Handful of ginger nut biscuits crushed

1. In a bowl mix the sugar in to the eggs yolks using a whisk until thick and pale yellow. Beat in the cinnamon and ginger. Set aside.

2. In a pan gently heat the half and half until its simmering.

3. Slowly beat this hot half and half in to the egg mixture, then put the whole thing back in to the pan and heat. Do this quickly to retain heat. Stir constantly until it thickens to form a custard. Don't boil the mixture or the eggs will scramble, it needs to be a gentle heat.

4. Remove from the heat and add the pumpkin, in our case this was about 3 pieces of pie filling we roughly crushed up. This then needs to be sifted through a strainer and then set aside to cool a little.

5. Add the extra cream and vanilla. This is then refrigerated for a few hours (or over night) until cold.

6. Once this was ready we poured it in to the ice cream machine which has a stirring device to more easily mix and added more roughly crushed ginger nut biscuits  The ice cream vessel was then put back in the freezer for about 12 hours. Every couple of hours we pulled it out and stirred it using the ice cream machine.

You could make this without one but the stirring part would be much harder, you'd need to put the bowl in the freezer and stir by hand every 30-45 minutes to stop ice crystals forming in the custard.

It was delicious, soft, smooth, spicy and sweet.



There you have it -  3 great ways to prepare pumpkin!

xx

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ROASTED SPICED BEETROOT AND LENTIL SALAD WITH GOATS CHEESE AND TOMATO

This was our first harvest of beetroots from the garden and boy were we chuffed! Alongside a healthy portion of yellow cherry tomatoes from our bay window planter boxes and some lovely organic goats cheese from wholefoods this was a home grown taste sensation!

Beetroots and goats cheese is a classic combo. Add the firm texture of the lentils with the creamy sharpness of the cheese and the sweetness of the beetroot it truly is amazing. My brother does an excellent lentil salad which is seasoned very well with lots of cracked pepper. This led me to read around and experiment by adding spices to the roasting process to add even greater depth of flavour. I was pleasantly surprised when I got a few zings of star anise and cardamom when eating some of the beetroots. This is great as a dinner party starter/side or simply delicious on its own for lunch.

Serves six:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 tablespoon juniper berries
1 tablespoon cumin seeds (I was out this time around so substituted with ground cumin)
1 tablespoon star anise
8 small to medium-sized beetroot with leaves and stems intact
(If no leaves available - substitute with 100g rocket)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

200g Puy lentils (Important you track down Puy - other types wont hold their texture well enough)
About 200ml stock (vegetable or chicken, home made for best results)
2 small garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Few handfuls cherry tomatoes, halved
Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Small bunch of mint, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper
200g goats' cheese (any soft cheese would do however if you dont dig billy)
Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 180C. Top and trim off roots of beetroot if they're fresh. Reserve stems and beetroot leaves for salad. Tear off a large square of tin foil (big enough to wrap all of the beets in one go). Scatter the salt and spices over a large piece of foil and lay the beetroot whole on top, then drizzle over a tablespoon of the olive oil. Mess them around a bit so the oil and spices coat the skins. Wrap loosely and place on tray in oven (it may leak juices)

Cook in the preheated oven for just under an hour, until the beetroot are completely soft when poked with a fork. Take them out of the oven and let them cool enough for you to peel. Peel and dice into rough cubes. Cover to keep warm.

While the beetroot are roasting and cooling, lightly fry your garlic in a pot with some oil for a minute or so then add your lentils and your stock and simmer gently for around 20 (sometimes up to 30) minutes. Don't let them simmer dry - like a risotto you want to periodically top up with stock or boiling water if they are running out of liquid. When they taste soft but still firm to the bite take them off the heat and drain off any excess liquid. Add a splash of olive oil and season well.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes, in a smaller bowl select and roughly shred your smallest and youngest beetroot leaves to form the greens of your salad (or alternatively add your rocket). Select a handful of beetroot stems from the younger beets and cut into cm long pieces. Combine these leaves and stems with the tomatoes, parsley and chopped mint. Squeeze half a lemon over the leaves.


Lay out some lentils on each plate. Add some salad mixture and diced spiced beetroot. Add a few whole wint leaves and then crumble the goats' cheese over the top

Crack some pepper and drizzle some good olive oil over the salad and plate and eat while still warm.

Delicious!

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HOME MADE PIZZA - FRESH FROM THE OVEN

We recently joined the Fresh From the Oven baking community. Their baking challenge for the month of May was home made Pizza! We love love love making pizza at home so you don't have to ask us twice - pizza it is!

The challenge hosted by Lauren from Coffee Muffins was to make pizzas using a good pizza dough recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. Normally we have our own dough recipe 'in our head' that we have evolved by taste, touch and feel over the years. Punch of salt, splash of oil kind of thing. But were very happy to take up the challenge and use a more precise approach. We actually made two half batches using the amounts below - but altered the flour mix in both of them. One using a 50/50 wholemeal mix and one purely white flour. Both were delicious.

But its not just the dough that is important. From our perspective you need four things to ensure a great pizza:

• Great dough using good quality flour, yeast and salt
• Rich, flavoursome tomato sauce - preferably made from scratch
• Fresh toppings - three or four flavours is best 
• Super hot oven - ideally with pizza stone 

Here's how we do it...
Dough

Makes six smaller pizzas (or three larger ones)

 4 1/2 cups or 20.25 ounces of unbleached high-gluten bread flour
(We did one half batch 100% white flour and one half batch with 50/50 wholemeal / white flour)
1 3/4 teaspoons or 0.44 ounces of salt

1 teaspoon or 0.11 ounces of instant yeast 

1/4 cup or 2 ounces of olive oil

1 3/4 cups or 14 ounces of ice cold water

Method - The day before baking combine ingredients in a bowl - work / mix / knead with a wooden spoon for 6 - 7 minutes to develop gluten or in a mixer with dough hook attached 6-7 minutes. Divide into 6 equal portions and with floured hands shape into balls. Place into an oiled freezer bags and place in the fridge overnight to rise. (If cooking that day leave on an oiled grease proof papered tray and cover with moist tea towel to rise). The next day take them out of fridge a few hours before you want them. Stretch them into small 1/2 inch thick discs and place on oiled tray. Allow another hour or so to warm up and rise. Once they have softened and risen some more carefully work and stetch the discs into your desired end width / thickness. I like them quite thin and crispy. If you're feeling adventurous dust your knuckles with flour and throw each pizza in the air using a circular motion until they are the right size for your pizza. Which  brings us onto...

Tomato sauce
I think this is a huge part of the pizza which is often overlooked. If I have the time I will simmer down the tomato sauce from scratch using lovely over ripe tomatoes. Home made tomato sauce can turn a good pizza into a great one. I still use tomato paste from a tube or a jar when I'm pushed for time but much prefer the home made version.
1 kg over ripe tomatoes 
1 brown onion (very) finely diced
6 cloves garlic finely chopped
Handful fresh oregano (dried is ok too - just use less)
Splash of red wine
Pinch of salt. Punch of sugar

Method - You need to remove the tomato skin and the seeds. You do that by scoring the tomato's skin in an X pattern and core it / remove the stem end. Blanch the tomatoes in in a pot of boiling water for a minute or so (you want to avoid cooking them at this stage). Remove and rinse with cold water (or dunk in an ice bath if you're feeling super organised). The skin should then easily peel or fall off. You remove the seeds by cutting the tomatos in half across the grain and pushing the little pods of seeds out with your thumb. 

You can then dice the remaining flesh into rough pulp (I like to keep mine quite chunky). Fry the onions and garlic in some olive oil on a gentle heat until they are soft and starting to turn golden. Gentle heat is the key - you don't want tiny pieces of burnt garlic and onion floating in your sauce. Deglaze the pan with a generous splash of red wine scraping off any goodness that may be stuck to bottom of pan. Add your tomato pulp, pinch of salt and punch of sugar. Turn down the heat to its lowest setting.

You want the faintest bubble - barely noticeable. Add some water if its quite sticky already. Then simmer for a few hours until its goes a rich dark red colour. You can get away with half an hour or 45 mins if you simmer rapidly, but the best results is an ultra slow simmer over one - three hours. Periodically come back and stir it - making sure it doesn't burn. Continually taste it adding small pinches of salt if its tasting bland, and small pinches of sugar if it's tasting too sharp or acidic. Towards the end of your simmering session - add your oregano (if you add it too early it can go bitter). Adding herbs isn't strictly necessary but we find its a great way to increase the depth of flavour in your pizza. I like it chunky so spoon it over the pizza bases as is. If you want a smooth finish you can put half or all of the finished sauce in a blender or food processor. Make a big batch and you can freeze it for later. 

Topping combinations & cooking

Quick notes. Really hot oven is best to simulate the heat of a wood fired oven. Hot as it will go : usually 250°C or so. If you are using a pizza stone you should put it in early to get up to heat. I've actually been investigating the possibility of cooking it on a charcoal (webber) BBQ using a semi-circular piece of marble. I'll report back how we go.

If you don't have a pizza stone - use a thick pan - often the solid metal tray that acts as a tray in your oven can do an excellent job. You have to stop it sticking. The traditional way is with Semolina flour (cornmeal) dusted on the bottom of the pizza and the pan. If you don't have that - a good splash of oil will do the job. Unfortunately we don't own a pizza shovel which makes it easy to shovel ready made pizzas into the oven, so I usually have to pull a pre heated tray out of the oven then build a pizza in quick time on it and throw it back in. Cooking time is usually between 8 - 12 minutes at top temperature.

In terms of toppings - less is more. We aim for several ingredients that pack a punch and work well in combination. Anything goes really, but dont try to overpack the pizza with toppings. Here was our efforts from the evening - featuring some of our all time favorite combinations including:

Honey roasted Pumpkin, Peppers, Feta and Rocket:

Classic Marghareta (Tomato, Basil, Mozeralla):

Potato, Mushroom, Rosemary and Garlic:

And our all time favorite Chorizo & Kalamata Olive: 

YUM YUM YUM!

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